David Garten ’98 Draws Straight Line From His Time at Ferrum College to His Professional Success

Inside Rockefeller Center, David Garten (pictured with his wife, Melanie, and son, Rohan) looks outside his office window at the bustling city streets of Manhattan. Despite working in one of the most iconic areas of New York City, Garten reminisces of the beauty seen in the night sky above Ferrum College. “At night you see more stars than you ever could possibly believe,” recalls Garten.

After graduating from Ferrum College with a B.S. in Social Work, Garten worked in the juvenile justice and specialized foster care system before attending graduate school at Columbia University where he earned dual master’s degrees in Social Policy and Public Administration and quickly found himself working on Capitol Hill for former U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York.

Garten’s time in D.C. and New York politics prepared him for his current gig: New York real estate. He is currently employed by RXR, a real estate and infrastructure development company in New York City, as the senior vice president of Corporate Affairs. Garten draws a straight line from his time at Ferrum to his professional success, stating, “It has been instrumental in helping me navigate from the worlds of bareknuckle D.C. and New York politics to [the world of] New York real estate.”